Nomura details Final Fantasy XV and Kingdom Hearts III in Famitsu By Erren Van Duine on June 12, 2013 at 4:39 PM

Nomura’s at E3 this year – that we already know; however, finding interview with him is few and far between – unless you’re Famitsu it seems.

The magazine went behind closed doors to interview the director of both titles, gleaming from him a few more details we’d not known previously.

Of interest, Nomura says the line in the trailer “about the fifteenth coming” was more of a gag joke than anything – it will not be in the game. He acknowledges that the “A world of the VERSUS epic” tagline at the end of the trailer specifically refers to the possibility of turning the setting into a series of its own. He says the story in FFXV will reach a climax, but it is like the conclusion of a single part of a larger epic poem. There will be room for more stories to be told – so don’t be surprised if a FFXV-2 shows up at some point.

Nomura is aware that for large scale console development projects, there might be a need to keep people interested in the long term with online elements (multiplayer) rather than just offer a short term single player experience. There are no concrete plans as of yet but he’s looking at all possibilities to see what fits.

Square Enix is also interested in expanding new FF experiences to the PS Vita – note that XV will be playable through it by Sony mandate anyway – as well as smartphones and tablets. In terms of the types of content, they will be new experiences instead of tried and true FF ones.

Those worried about another FFXV media hiatus need not – Nomura promises there will be more of XV from now on, especially at larger events such as Tokyo Game Show.

Onto Kingdom Hearts III, Nomura says they’re calling the shading technique in the game the “Kingdom Shader” and shaders will change with each Disney world to create more authentic visual experiences based on source material. In regards to the actual engine for XV and KH3, the teams are looking to use Luminous Studio as the main engine. By developing on an Overspec PC environment, it makes porting content to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One quite easy.

The battle footage shown for KH3 is a pre-rendered movie as the tools they’re using have difficulty outputting stuff on the actual systems right now – though Nomura promises it runs in real time in the development environment and it should look the same given time.

The two biggest new things in KH3 which he talks about are “crazy scale action” and way better enemy AI. He confirms that there will be a three character party in the game, but NPCs and allies in each world will also join in battles, and there will be crazy epic aerial action sound like KH. He also talks about enemy AI being more complex and being able to interact with the player, like Sora riding on a vehicle type enemy and so on.

The team is also considering online features for KH3, as well as other features that have not been in a KH title before.

Finally, Nomura thinks that it would be great if they can time the release of more information on KH3 at the D23 Expo Japan in October along with TGS. KH3 is seen as a rival production for FFXV, currently in development at Square Enix’s Osaka studio while the main team works on Final Fantasy.